Robert Stein (1950)

Robert Stein (1972)

Robert Stein (2000s)

About Me

editor, publisher, media critic and journalism teacher,
is a former Chairman of the American Society of Magazine Editors, and author of “Media Power: Who Is Shaping Your Picture of the World?” Before the war in Iraq, he wrote in The New York Times: “I see a generation gap in the debate over going to war in Iraq. Those of us who fought in World War II know there was no instant or easy glory in being part of 'The Greatest Generation,' just as we knew in the 1990s that stock-market booms don’t last forever.
We don’t have all the answers, but we want to spare our children and grandchildren from being slaughtered by politicians with a video-game mentality."
This is not meant to extol geezer wisdom but suggest that, even in our age of 24/7 hot flashes, something can be said for perspective.
The Web is a wide space for spreading news, but it can also be a deep well of collective memory to help us understand today’s world. In olden days, tribes kept village elders around to remind them with which foot to begin the ritual dance. Start the music.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Cain's Assembly Line Lechery

From evidence so far, the Pizza Man’s skirt-chasing seems as random as his economic studies, making casual passes at objectives but cheerfully taking nein-nein-nein as a final answer and moving on to keep selling.

After yesterday’s lurid testimony by Woman #4, which led the PBS NewsHour, #5 comes as a letdown, with Cain, after a speech in Egypt, asking to be set up with a woman in the audience, then trying to settle for a USAID worker and finally dining with a group, stiffing them (and ultimately taxpayers) for two $400 bottles of wine.

Such assembly-line lechery recalls Bill Clinton, of course, but not to make light of any sexual harassment, without passion or panache, but more of a reflexive response.

In his press conference today, Cain says he can't remember his Monday accuser. If the emerging pattern is accurate, he may be telling the truth about that.

With a trickle of women who said no, the question is how many, under persistent pressure to get or keep their jobs, said yes and would now be too ashamed to come forward?

If all this takes him down, the irony would be that Herman Cain’s sexual disrespect for women would have to serve as a metaphor for the intellectual emptiness that has brought him this far but never should have.

What is coming to light about his approach to women is no different from what he has been doing to voters in plain view for months now. When he drops out, they will no longer have a choice between Cain and the other Disabled GOP contenders.

The former President is scheduled for the Daily Show tonight. Will Jon Stewart find a sly way to ask Bill Clinton about Cain and the Question?